


Dressing the Part

by DestinyFreeReally



Category: The Newsroom (US TV)
Genre: F/M, Pre-Series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-02
Updated: 2019-03-02
Packaged: 2019-11-07 21:24:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 430
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17968319
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DestinyFreeReally/pseuds/DestinyFreeReally
Summary: inspired by a "you look incredible in this" prompt. Pre-Series, Mac thinking about seeing Will again.





	Dressing the Part

   Mac stared at her closet, at a loss. Three days of heavy shopping, getting her old clothes out of storage, digging through outfits new and old, and Mac still felt like she had nothing to wear to her first day at News Night.   
  
    Every time she tried something from her wardrobe, she kept imagining seeing Will again, and she ended up feeling like she was standing there, stark naked.    
  
    “And not in the sexy way,” she complained to her sister on the phone, “the panicked, ghost-stricken, extremely unsexy sort of naked, that’s sometimes followed by fainting.”    
  
    She wanted to tell herself that she wasn’t afraid of seeing Will again, not on TV. She wanted to be cautiously excited. News Night had incredible potential to become an every night meat-and-potatoes news show.  _ If only Will would worry less about out-pleasing Leno, _ Mackenzie tossed a maroon sweater aside.    
  
    Besides, it’d been years. Will had moved on- clearly; with the ignoring her emails, and the Erin Andrews escapades, and the-  _ he moved on. _ She knew that; that was part of breaking up, and she’d had her part in their breaking up, too. So if he moved on, and she moved on, then they could work together and she didn’t have to be afraid of seeing him in real life.    
  
    “When was the last time you had a  _ date _ , Kenz? And dinner with Jim  _ doesn’t _ count as a date,” her sister prodded, but Mac bobbed and weaved. Dating and dinners and romance were for people who didn’t work entire months out of the year.  _ And for people who didn’t cheat with their ex boyfriend. _ __   
__   
    “Of course Jim doesn’t count,” Mac defended herself without additional comment. Reaching for a black satin dress still in it’s garment bag at the back of her closet, Mac unzipped the clear plastic slowly.   
  
   She wore it to a jazz show; back when her and Will were first dating. He introduced her to his drummer friend backstage, and then the band invited him to play on a few songs while Mac watched from their booth. She remembered watching him onstage, under the lights, taking a solo, and he’d found her eyes in the crowd and that time she felt naked in the  _ very, very _ sexy way.    
  
    She thumbed the soft fabric of the dress, and then zipped the bag, silently.    
  
_ “You look incredible in this,” he’d whispered over her shoulder before taking it off her. _ __   
__   
    With a deep sigh, she picked a blouse off the top of the tried-on pile on her bed, and decided it would have to do.


End file.
